Chapter Nine - The city, the family, the changes
A large stone and brick house nestled in the very heart of the city loomed over the small carriage that brought Susan. This monestrous house was tightly tucked in between two other large building on either side. The front door of the place seemed to be almost on top of the wooden sidewalk, making it seemed so cramped..
The young girl looked up at the house that soared into the sky, and found it less that ‘homey’ looking. Looking around where the carriage had stopped, she noted just how the streets here in the city had more people riding and walking around than she had ever seen before. On this street alone, it seemed that there were more people than what lived in any of the towns surrounding her real mother and father’s far.
Feeling somewhat overwhelmed, she wondered just where she had been taken to... as this was far away from anything she experienced in her short life.
“ Is this my Aunt Nicolette’s house?” She called out to the driver, leaning out of the door under the watchful eye of Alice, who still had not said one word.
“ Yes, Miss Susan... this is it.” Said the driver gruffly as he jumped from the driver’s seat.
Susan was not quite sure of all of this, as the whole city seemed to be one mob of people, and the sounds that cam with it was deafening. Clacking of horseshoes on the cobblestone streets echoed, and the many voices filled the air from every direction assaulted the girl’s senses. This was a place that she could have never dreamed up in her life. The city was like one large life of its own..
As the driver of the Smyth carriage stood out on the street, a stiff looking man in a very odd looking outfit stepped out of the house and headed straight to the carriage. This man was about her adoptive father’s age by the look of it, yet the man was very fat and his sour looking face made for a very intimidating mask. He strolled up with a swaggering gait, looking like he was cross at something.
The man that had came out of the house looked at the driver of the Smyth’s carriage and snuffed.
“ Is this that foundling Mrs. Vanstrom’s sister sent to us?.” He said, with a sneer.
“ Her name is Susan...” Said the driver, seemingly irritated at how the man was acting towards his employer’s daughter. “ And yes, this is Mrs. Smyth’s new daughter.”
The man seemed to instantly get upset at the driver, eying him like he had insulted him or something. Clearing his throat, he seemed to nearly ignore the man.
“ Well then...” He started, obviously ignoring what had been said to him. “... have Miss Susan and her girl-servant follow me inside... Mrs. Vanstrom is waiting in the parlor for her arrival..”
Alice had already jumped out of the carriage and had collected Susan’s and her bags from the rack, much to the surprise of everyone. The chestnut brown haired girl stepped out of the carriage with great apprehension, the man really was scary to her.
The man lifted his head, like as if he had smelled something really bad and began to walk back to the house. The two girls followed the very snooty man into the residence, while the driver seemed to have been readying the horse team to go back to the Smyth’s. He did pause to watch the two enter the house, going back to tending the horses once they were out of sight of him.
The interior of the house was way different than the outside had made it out to be. The place was full of strange looking furniture and decorations that were everywhere. Strange vases and tables pointed out that where ever this stuff was from, was from a place far removed from what the two knew.
As the two girls followed the man, they could not help but gawk everything, each seemed more than just a little overwhelmed by it. It was like walking into a old English castle that had been written about in some old fairytale. Susan had never seen a place quite like this, just like the city itself....it seemed like something that was not from this world.
A tall woman in a very opulent green dress carrying a small hand fan came flowing out of a room off to one side of the entranceway. The suddenness of the woman coming out of that room was like she had just appeared out of nowhere. One look at the woman’s face told Susan that here stood her new Aunt, one Nicolette Vanstrom.
The woman looked a lot like what her ‘mother’ did, but there were many striking differences between the two. The woman seemed to be not as tall, and she was also thinner than Mrs. Smyth. The face seemed to be more narrower and had a sharp angle to it, holding a few more age lines around the eyes and mouth. This woman seemed stoic like her sister, but yet there was a air of coldness that surpassed her mother.
The woman regarded the brown haired girl for a moment, her unmoving eyes felt rather disturbing as she seemed to nearly be able to look right through her.
“ You must be Susan, young lady.” She said, her tone a little tight.
“ Yes, Ma’am.” Said Susan politely, looking at the woman.
The lady looked her up and down a few times, as she stepped a little closer. She ignored Alice, who stood still holding the bags she had carried from outside, while her gaze seemed to be fixed on the girl in front.
“ You are very polite... I am pleasantly surprised with that...” Nicolette said, with a smile that was not in any way friendly. “ My sister has picked a fairly pretty one at that, hasn’t she...”
“ Thank you.” Susan said, feeling a little uneasy with how the woman was talking to her.
The woman turned to a very thin and small young girl in a servants outfit. The woman paused, as the girl give a low curtsy without even making eye contact.
“ Audrey... Be a good girl and show my Niece and her servant to where they will be staying for the next little while.” She commanded with a booming voice, now sounding exactly like Susan’s mother always did.
“ Yes, Mrs. Vanstrom...” The girl was quick to answer.
Nicolette turned and went back into the room where she had came out of as quickly as she had appeared, not saying one more word in the process. The servant girl beckoned the two arrivals with one hand to follow her and simply started to walk off. Susan followed the girl closely, Alice falling in step with her in silence while still carting the bags for them both.
Susan and Alice were quickly led up many flights of stairs, obviously they were being led up into the very far reaches the house had to offer. The hallways started to get narrower as they went, the surroundings got progressively dustier and the air now held a heavy musty smell as they moved farther upwards. Clearly to both of the girls, this part of the house they were being led to never got used very much.
Four long flights up found them facing a final short flight of stairs. The little flight of steps seemed to be almost claustrophobically narrow, that was where another door sat at the very top landing. Audrey the servant girl never once hesitated and climbed the little staircase, taking the steps with almost a shuffling movements... not even turning her head once to look back at either Susan or Alice.
The two girls behind Audrey followed without a word of their own, each seemed so unsure of just why they had been brought to what appeared to be the most out of the way part the house had to offer.
The room behind the door was a small attic area that had only one small window at one end. There was not very much to speak of in cramped area. There was a large bed set just beside the window with a dingy brown comforter draped over it. There were a couple of lightly painted dressers off to one side that had a couple of tin wash basins and a pitcher for water on top. There was a long angled swivel mirror off in one corner and a couple of oil lamps that sat on each of the dresses and beside the bed, but there was not much else that filled this strange dust filled room.
Audrey the servant girl then bowed and hurried out of the room almost and if she was scared. The girl still had said absolutely nothing to either of the newcomers, she simply brushed past Susan and Alice like a frightened rabbit hunted by wolves and was gone back down the steps.
The two girls looked at one another, as the realization of things really had started to sink in. This small attic room was going to be where they would be staying the whole time, until they would finally return to the Smyth Estate.
“ I guess this is where we are staying...” Commented Susan in a whisper.
“ It looks like it..” Said Alice, speaking for the first time in hours as she put the suitcases down.
The red head looked at the large bed, as she started to unpack things. She sighed and looked at Susan, who also stood looking around at the room. Nothing had to be said at that point, they seemed to be feeling the exact same thing.... Neither one of them felt particular welcomed at this time, the room they had been give was spelling that out in big letters.
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After awhile, Susan was led down to a large area where the dining room was by Audrey while Alice went with another servant to the back of the house.. There still hung this overall feeling of coldness.
In the dining room sat a thick wood table was a dark shiny hardwood which seemed as cold as the place felt.. At the table sat Aunt Nicolette with two young girls, one seemingly a little older than Susan. Aunt Nicolette looked up and saw the girl standing there, and seemed to almost sigh.
“ Are you settled?” She asked.
“ Almost, Auntie.” Susan replied, her ming flashing back to the thought of the room they had been given.
The woman then spoke, seemingly so matter-of-fact as she introduced the two that sat near her. One girl was wearing a striking blue dress with a matching bow nestled in her blondish brown hair and had a striking dark eyes that seemed to go right through Susan... this was her new cousin, Laura.
The girl was probably the closest of the two to Susan’s age. She was the perfect younger image of her mother in every way right down to the unsmiling face. The girl sat there so prim and proper as she looked at Susan, hands lightly clasped under the table edge... it really made the girl seem way older that what she was.
Susan noted how cold the stare she was getting from Laura really was, and it was exactly like her mother’s gaze. The girl did not seem the least bit to be friendly, only saying her name back to her in forced politeness. It seemed that this sort of behavior ran in the family, Susan’s mind concluded. She pleasantly greeted Laura right back, but the girl did not seem even to notice.
Looking beside Lara, she now saw the sister to her. The eldest girl wore a dusty rose colored dress and had long light brown hair that was tied back with a colorful tie. Her face was even more stoic, almost to the point of looking rather bored with almost everything. This girl was introduced as Christina Anne.... and by just how the girl looked, for all intensive purposes, Christina Anne looked so much like Susan’s mother. This girl as well, was not friendly in any way towards Susan.
Her Aunt looked over, staring at her intently. The look was colder than even her mother’s, which made Susan feel very uncomfortable.
“ My sister wrote to me about you awhile back...” Said the woman, almost as if she was reading something boring. “ She said that they picked you out of some orphanage home out in the country?”.
“ Yes, Ma’am... they did.” Susan said shakily, as the woman’s eyes were more unnerving than her new mother’s usually was..
“ And were was this orphanage you were living in, young lady?” Aunt Nicolette asked, almost as an afterthought.
“ The orphanage I was at was in the town of Hedger Creek.” The girl answered.
The two young girls started to giggle and whispered togther right after Susan had replied to their mother’s questions. She looked at them flatly, knowing very well that they were laughing at her and where she had came from... with most of the people she knew back at the mansion, they did the same thing. She ignored them and tried to keep her attention on the woman.
“ Where did you come from before that?” The woman asked, almost if she did not hear the two girls laughing.
“ My Pa and Ma had a farm between the town of Hedger Creek and Haganbrook, we were just past the Brandvein River junction.” Susan politely answered, then heard the two girls suddenly were giggling even harder.
The younger of the two glared at Susan, then leaned over to her sister real close as she began to snicker loudly.
“ She called her real Father ‘Pa’...” Laura said, snickering under her words..
“ And she called her real Mother ‘Ma’...” Said Christina Anne, who snuffed loudly.” How unrefined...”
“ Wonder if she calls our Auntie “Ma’ as well?” Laura giggled
“ She would not dare...” Her sister snuffed.
“ No.. I guess she would not put up with that for long...” Sniggered the first girl.
Susan give a irritated glare at the girls, as they were mocking her at this point. The girl’s just give a sneer back, obviously not worried about hurting Susan’s feelings in any way. The both continued to talk amongst themselves, as if the chestnut locked girl was not even there... putting an accent on what they thought of the new girl in their midst.
It was at that point, Susan found her mind wandering off. She found that she was wanting something she never thought she would have wanted... she was really wanting to be back at her new home, and away from these judgmental two and her equally unfriendly Aunt . With all of this reaction that was being shown towards her, she actually wanted to be back home....even with Ambrose. It was very clear to her that anything at all would be better than this.
The woman seemed to roll her eyes a little at how Susan was reacting to being in her home. The woman sighed and went back to simply ignoring everyone in the room, just like she had been when the young girl had came in.
The young chestnut haired girl seemed to sink into herself, averting her eyes from everyone as she did so. Her Aunts seemingly total lack of interest for Susan did not help the situation any. The way they all and reacted to her was actually made the young Smyth girl feel very insignificant to the workings of this family she had been thrust into.... she was not of this family by birth... but it seemed that they did not want her in this way either.
As Susan took a seat at the far end of the large table, a deathly silence had quickly crept over the room. No one spoke or even looked around for what felt like hours, as a light meal was ferried in by a group of servants. It was very clear that the coldness of this side of the Smyth family seemed to be even deeper and more intrenched than it was back at home, Susan thought.
As the meal progressed a little, talking finally came back into the room... but not ever was it directed at Susan. The woman and her daughters lightly chatted over different events and parties that were going to be on, all the while they were clearly going out of their way to ignore the young brown haired girl being even there.
Sitting there at the farthest end of the huge table, Susan was feeling so isolated even as she sat in plain view. It was as if she was not even sitting there at all, and there was that sense of her new family was unwanting or unwilling to accept her.
After having the little brunch, everyone in this family simply went off on their separate ways, dispite having a houseguest in their midst. Aunt Nicolette left the house Christina Anne, not even telling Susan where they were going... or even acknowledging her when they did. Laura went off somewhere in the expanse of the house with a very stern looking older woman which she could gather was the tutor of the Vanstrom girls. She was left like some pet nobody wanted any more.
With everyone gone except for the servants, and no sign of her Uncle yet... this left Susan to find something to do all on her own. Dispite experiencing her new family’s very cold and aloof reactions to her, she was sort of glad to get this time to herself... but it did not lift the feeling of being invisible. It was beginning to feel more and more like she was like she was a ghost to these people... an very unwanted ghost. More than ever thought, it was just re-enforcing the feelings of being so alone.
As she searched though the house to find something she might be able to do, She came upon where Alice had gotten off to while she had been experiencing the newest branch of her new family first hand. She looked at the girl, and was surprised and a little taken back by just what she found her maid was doing at the time.
Alice had been put to work scrubbing some very dingy walls at the back of the large house... something that Mrs. Smyth had never specified the young servant would have been doing while here. It seemed like the new family had just taken advantage of Alice being there, and this made Susan feel angry with it. It was a whole lot of never on their part to be doing it.
Susan noted the grim look that was on the sweat covered face, and her heart instantly connected with the girl who scrubbed the wall. She could see just how the red head was not in any way happy to be here either, but it was also clear that she was doing it because she was sent here for her. She felt her heart jump, as she hated to see anyone feeling like she was at this point. Nobody should be.
Susan caught the girl’s eye as she stood there in silence. She felt so bad for the girl, those eyes were telling her exactly how miserable Alice was feeling... and she hated that the pretty red headed girl was feeling that.
Susan shifted on her feet, feeling so badly for the girl that seemed to be working so hard.
“ I’m sorry for all of this...It was not my idea” She whispered, making sure only Alice could hear.
“ I know that...” Alice said, sighing as she paused from her wall cleaning. “ I came to serve you, not them... with me doing this just helps keep the peace... I reckon.”
“ You don’t work for them... but for our family...” Said Susan, worried what this was doing to the girl on the inside. “ And you should not be...”
With a tired look on her face, but a almost bashful smile on, she nodded to Susan
“ I know...but if it makes them be just a little more nice to you in the end... I just need to do what they want of me...” Was Alice’s answer, strongly pointing to her conviction about it all..
The red head stopped her cleaning, throwing her rag in to the bucket of very grey looking water and came over to Susan. She looked right into the face of the brown haired girl and sighed, noting that she was feeling the same stress of this situation as she was.
“ Seems like I am not the only one who feels like we are not really wanted here...” Said Alice after a second.
“ No ... I don’t want to be here...” Said Susan.
Alice looked at her employer’s daughter and nodded. She put her hand out and placed it on Susan’s cheek lightly and sighed, holding Susan’s eyes with her own gaze.
“ I will try and help you the best I can while bein’ here... because I care.” She stated firmly.
“ You will?” Asked Susan.
“ Like I have been trying to actually tell you since I first layed eyes on you... I love you.” Was all the girl said back to her.
The girl slowly leaned in and placed a kiss on to Susan’s lips, a soft and very heartfelt kiss that brushed her like a gentle breeze. The brown haired girl did not shy away from Alice’s advance this time, but kissed the red head back with everything she had...draping her arms around the lean form and holding her close to herself.
Alice returned the embrace with one of her own, a sigh coming from deep inside of her as she did so. In the silence that held the house, and with no one to see them, they hung there suspended..
After a unspecified length of time, the girls reluctantly let go as they heard that someone way down a hallway was heading in their direction at a quick pace. They smiled and stared at one another for a moment in amazement of the moment they had shared, with dazed smiles on their faces. Alice smiled so softly as she turned, eye twinkling like stars on a cloudless night. She turned and went back to finish the work she was doing.
Flustered with the kiss, Susan just went off to find a book or something to pass the time away, but her mind was now spinning. She could not totally resolve what came over her when the girl had kissed her, but she was now really sure of one thing... she really liked the pretty maid called Alice. Could that actually be so wrong?